


A Magical City Called Paris

by happy__synthesizer



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Drinking, Idiots in Love, Inspired by their trip to Paris, Joe Is So Whipped, M/M, One Shot, Rollerblades & Rollerskates, The bar they visit is actually a real place in Paris fun fact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29896383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happy__synthesizer/pseuds/happy__synthesizer
Summary: "“I’m not a chicken!” Cherry snapped. Bingo. “And I’m not scared!”Joe leaned forwards on the table, his face coming awfully close to Cherry’s as he smirked and said, “Then prove it.”Cherry’s eyebrows shot up, then he frowned, grabbed his glass, gulped down the last of his drink and stood up.“Fine,” he said. “Let’s go fucking dance, Kojiro.”"*********or, my version of what (really) happened on joe and cherry's alleged trip to paris.
Relationships: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom, matcha blossom - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 101





	A Magical City Called Paris

**Author's Note:**

> Songs mentioned in the fic:  
> \- "Sweet Dreams" by Beyoncé  
> \- "Hate to Love You" by Karmin

“Kaoru, I’m telling you—it smells like fucking piss.”

“Will you shut up?”

“I’m pretty sure the P in Paris stands for piss.”

Cherry jabbed Joe in the ribs, prompting the other to almost fall down into the canal.

“If you don’t shut that gorilla trap of yours right now I’ll throw you into the Seine,” Cherry deadpanned.

Joe smirked. “I’d like to see you try, Pinky-Pie.”

They’d spent the whole day touring through all of Paris, one of the many landmarks of the world the two of them wanted to travel to together. The summer sun was almost gone now, the only traces of it being the golden shadows that were casted through the streets. It was true that Paris was beautiful, the architecture made it seem as if they were walking through an old Victorian town, and the Seine river right beside them did gave off the feeling that you were walking in an old black and white movie. The perfect place to visit—according to Cherry that is. For Joe though, it was getting awfully boring. Sure, the ladies and the atmosphere was pretty—but beyond that, there was nothing truly exciting.

L.A had been exciting, with its big festivals and bars brimming with lively people, it was everything his spirit ached for. Paris, though? Not so much. It was full of old people wanting to see the Eiffel Tower and spend at least six hours walking through the galleries of the Louvre, staring at old paintings with no real meaning. And the smell—the smell was the worst part definitely. He’d become so used to the clean streets of Okinawa now, that the dirty canals of France were killing him.

He slouched against the railing of the Seine and let out a loud sigh. Cherry put down the map he was holding in an exasperated motion and turned around.

“God, will you stop whining for once? I swear we’re almost— _wait_ , what are you doing?”

Joe tucked a loose strand of hair behind Cherry’s ear. Since it was summer, Cherry usually wore his hair in a ponytail, but when the air cooled around nightfall he let his hair fall loose on his shoulders like a cascading pink waterfall. Joe loved it, though he would rather eat a whole a bone first, than admit it.

“What were you saying, Pinky?”

Cherry lifted the map once again so his face was hidden to Joe.

“T-That, we’re almost there.”

“Oh, we have a destination in mind?” Joe asked, as they continued walking. “I thought we were letting our instincts guide us?”

“Next time we want to end up in a shitty restaurant I’ll let your instincts guide us.”

“Please, it wasn’t that bad!” Joe smiled and nudged Cherry. “And we did end up meeting Tony Hawk.”

“Hmm, good point there.”

“Ha! Point for—”

“But it _was_ shitty food, though.”

“Hey!”

Cherry laughed, a melodious sound accompanied by the street music of Paris. Soon enough, they were taking a turn at one of the locals by the riverside. 

“Okay, if this map is correct—and it is because paper, unlike you instincts, does not lie,” Cherry said, “the bar I searched for should be right… Here!”

It was a small local, with gray-painted walls, stickers, and graffiti everywhere. The windows were armor-plated with wooden bars, and the whole building looked as if it were taken straight out of a skating magazine. There were only two readable signs, one which read “GARAGE” in big bold black letters, and a blinking red-neon light that read “We’re Open” at the front door—if that’s what it could be called. It was actually more like a gigantic platinum garage door, the kind that could be found on the dark alleys that lead the way to “S”.

The place could’ve really passed for a garage, had it not been for the booming music coming from the inside and the bright multicolored neon lights that filtered through the slits on the windows. The building looked extremely out place in the Parisian scene, and Joe could tell that this place was not really the kind of bars Cherry looked for, which made it even more interesting. He felt a prickling sensation running down his back muscles. He was excited.

“Alright, Kaoru, this looks nice!” Joe took the man by the arm and pulled him towards the entrance.

“W-Wait, Kojiro! We haven’t even—”

“Knocked? Come on, it’s a bar, let’s just go in.”

As Joe turned around to open the door he was met face-first with an extremely tall woman with blonde hair, and bright red lipstick, smoking a cigarette by the now-open garage door.

“Tourists?” She asked.

“Yes! Actually,” Cherry said, “we have a reservation for Sakurayashiki Kaoru at six.”

“Oooh you’re the Japanese ones.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Well, come inside then! I’ll show you to your table.” The woman put out the rest of her cigarette on the ashtray by the door and disappeared inside.

A beat passed. Joe and Cherry looked at each other.

“Well that was hot.”

“Ko-ji-ro!” Cherry punctuated each syllable smacking Joe’s arm with his cherry blossom patterned hand fan.

“Oh my, Kaoru,” Joe teased, wiggling his eyebrows. “Could it be that you’re jealous?”

“In your dreams, you—human gorilla!”

Joe laughed as they stepped inside, following the blonde lady. 

The place was unexpectedly huge inside, almost like a nightclub. A DJ sat on a platform blasting all kinds of disco and electro music, and to top it off, an actual Disco Ball sat hanging in the middle of the roof, lighting the whole place ablaze with all kinds of colors. It was way too full of people for it to be a Sunday night, but what surprised Joe the most wasn’t the quantity of people, but the fact that everyone, on what he thought to be the dance floor, seemed to be wearing rollerblades.

The tall woman lead them through a door in the back that went outside.

Out on the terrace—that was more like a wooden raft right above the Seine—the ambience was calmer and they could feel the summer night-breeze fly past them. The terrace was illuminated by little string lights, and only a few people were sitting on the tables; most probably everyone was inside enjoying the music and the rollerblading.

“Okay, this is your table,” the lady said, setting down two menus on a table for two. “Welcome to The Garage and enjoy your date!”

“We—Wait—This isn’t!—” Kaoru stumbled with his words, but by the time he had settled them down into a rational sentence the woman was gone, leaving the two of them hanging in an uncomfortable silence. 

“Well,” Cherry coughed awkwardly, “Um, aren’t you going to thank me we didn’t follow your dumb instincts you—”

“This place is amazing Kaoru!” Joe said, cutting off Cherry’s anxious rambling. “How did you knew I was going to like it?”

Cherry scoffed and sat down. He took out his fan and covered his face again. “Do I really need to remind you that I have known your dumb-ass since before we were in high school?”

“Oh, Pinky, you never disappoint,” Joe said, sitting down too.

The food was beyond amazing, way better than what the food in a place called “The Garage” should be. And after a few drinks, Joe was convinced that maybe Paris wasn’t so bad. They started off with Mimosas—which then turned into Cherry’s Rosé, and Joe’s Sidecar. It was right around the fourth round of Mimosas when everything began to get a little bit blurry. 

“Say, Pinky-Pie—”

“Don’t call me that.”

“—What do say about we two go in for a little dance?”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Cherry’s cheeks flushed bright pink, contrasting prettily with his hair. “I don’t think that rollerblades and Mimosas would be a good match.”

“You didn’t think that piercings were a good match on your face either but it got you your first kiss in high school after I convinced you to get ‘em.”

“They didn’t kiss me only for the piercings!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Joe said, waving a hand nonchalantly, “you know what I’m hearing? I’m hearing a scaredy chicken.”

“I’m not a chicken!” Cherry snapped. _Bingo_. “And I’m not scared!”

Joe leaned forwards on the table, his face coming awfully close to Cherry’s as he smirked and said, “Then _prove it_.” 

Cherry’s eyebrows shot up, then he frowned, grabbed his glass, gulped down the last of his drink and stood up.

“Fine,” he said. “Let’s go fucking dance, Kojiro.” Cherry yanked Joe out of his seat and dragged him inside, where the music boomed over the speakers and the stench of sweat impregnated the air.

“Oooh, aggressive, I like your approach Kaoru!” Joe teased.

“The only approach you’re getting tonight is the one of defeat,” Cherry said, as he called for the lady on the counter asking for rollerblades, “Because I’m going to murder you on that dance floor.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Fucking bet.” Cherry took the rollerblades the woman on the counter handed him and started cuffing his jeans with his methodical hands, revealing slender ankles as he did so. _Sexy,_ supplied Joe’s brain. Wait, what did he just—?

“Sir! Here are your skates,” the woman called chewing a piece if gum. She was holding a big pair of dark green rollerblades, just his size. He hadn’t realized Cherry told the woman his foot size for him.

“Right, thank you pretty lady,” Joe winked at her. She glanced at him and Cherry, once, scoffed and turned around. Weird, Joe thought. Usually women fell at his feet. Maybe French girls just weren’t the same.

Joe took off his shoes and started putting on the rollerblades. He looked up as he was done, only to find Cherry—already up in his skates—holding out a hand for him while covering his face with his fan on the other. Perhaps it was the alcohol or the lights, but Joe could swear that Cherry’s cheeks wore the exact same shade as his hair did—a beautiful shade of pink.

“C-Come on you useless gorilla, you’re taking too long.” Joe smiled and allowed Cherry to pull him up.

“Woah, this feels way different than a skateboard!”

“Well, yeah, what did you expect?”

“Dunno’ I guess I thought they would be pretty much the same—since, you know—they’re both skates?”

“Kojiro you dumbass,” Cherry giggled, and skated off into the dance floor, leaving Joe behind with a thumping feeling on his chest. He touched his ears and undoubtedly they were burning hot, most probably tinted red. Damn, since when did Cherry know how to get to him so well?

Joe grinned and went off to chase Cherry.

The dancefloor was full with all kinds of people. There were couples dry humping into each other, drunk people falling on their asses, and some people simply skating alone, enjoying the music and the lights as they danced around them.

And in the middle of it all, was Cherry waiting for him, his hair already tied into a ponytail leaving his long neck uncovered for everyone to see. He was just as good in rollerblades as he was in a skateboard, his skating precise and right on beat with the music. It was on “S” that Kaoru had been given the nickname of Cherry Blossom, but it was—Joe thought—his dancing that truly awarded him of it. He flowed from one way to another, his shirt lifting up and revealing his toned arms and abdomen with each twirl.

Joe’s throat went dry. Maybe he’d been too quick to judge Paris. He took a shot from a waiter’s tray and swallowed it in one gulp.

He skated towards Cherry and did a trick of his own as Beyoncé’s Sweet Dreams blared through the speakers.

“Not bad,” Cherry said, wiping the sweat off his brow.

“Of course not, it’s _me_ ,” He winked and blew him a teasing kiss. 

Then, Cherry tripped with his own feet, and Joe was barely quick enough to catch him. He put his arm around Cherry’s waist as the song came to an end and quickly shuffled into another.

_I’m just a prisoner of your love._

_You got me lip-locked fire the gun. Oh._

Joe’s red eyes met with Cherry’s golden ones, clashing into a stare that neither of them was willing to break first.

Joe’s heart was beating with the music, threatening to jump out of his chest. He knew this feeling very well, though it was different now. With Cherry, it was different. It wasn’t just the stench of sweat and alcohol in the air that made it heavy—it was the tension that kept it that way. And maybe it was the alcohol taking over his brain, but Joe really wanted to break the tension between them right now.

“You ready?” He asked, smirking.

“What for?” Cherry replied. The music went louder as the chorus came.

_Sometimes I just hate to love you._

Joe straightened Cherry with his grip and took one of his hands.

“For this.”

Joe swinged Cherry and turned him around just like he used to do with the girls he occasionally danced with, laughing as he watched Cherry become flustered. The two men quickly got into a rhythm that made them look as if they’d been dancing with each other for ages. They’d _known_ each other for ages. But it was at times like these, when Joe was able to glimpse at Cherry without his composed façade, that he felt like he _truly_ knew him. The music kept on changing, and what was supposed to be a competition to see who skated the best rapidly turned into a dance that neither of them wanted to put an end to.

As the night went on further they drank more and teased each other tirelessly, and before they even knew it, the bar was about to close and they had to run through the streets of Paris to catch the train to their hotel.

They walked back to the hotel, nudging and trying to trip the other, as the drunk sound of their laughter inundated the empty streets.

“You’ll have to trust my instincts more often, Kaoru,” Joe smacked Cherry on the back. In retaliation, the pink-haired man smacked Joe on the arm.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” He said.

“The bar, Kaoru, the bar.”

“Please, do I have to remind you that it was the fact that Iplanned ahead what got us there in the first place?”

“Well it may have been,” said Joe, before grinning and looking at Cherry’s face, “But I was the one who got you to the dance floor.”

“Hmph—Well—I, you know, I-I take initiative too!” Cherry said, his cheeks—way past pink now—a lovely shade of red. His peachy hair was disheveled from all the dancing and his shirt half unbuttoned, leaving all the sharp edges of his collarbone available to the eye.

Joe’s brain was a fuzzy mess, but there was nothing in the world that he wanted on this moment more than to bite down into that collarbone. So he decided to test his luck. They said Paris was a magical city after all, wasn’t it?

“You take initiative, Kaoru?” Joe grabbed Cherry by the shoulders, stopping him in his tracks, and turned him around so they were both looking straight into each other’s eyes as he said, “Then _prove it.”_

Cherry’s eyebrow twitched and his breath hitched. Joe was sure nothing was going to happen, that Cherry would just turn around and dismiss his teasing as he always did.

But then, he felt Cherry’s hand on his neck, and Cherry’s lips on his, and they were kissing under the Paris lights, with only the stars and the moon as a witness. And, for the first time in his life, Joe’s entire world went silent. 

Cherry’s slips were soft and warm and his mouth tasted like strawberry syrup and rosé wine. Joe placed one hand on Cherry’s head and the other on his hips and pressed him against the wall. He felt Cherry’s taste ripen under his tongue, turning more desperate by the second. They separated to catch their breaths for a moment and Joe admired the pretty mess that Cherry was and something in his chest came undone. The fact that Joe liked it— _liked him._ The fact that he wanted to keep kissing Cherry until one of the two ran out of breath again. The fact that this felt completely different that when he made out with girls. And it was.

Kissing girls, Joe realized, in his drunken state of mind, was like rollerblading. It was fun, for a while, and though it was similar to it, it wasn’t exactly what Joe had fallen in love with.

Joe was in love with skateboarding. Skateboarding was exciting, sexy and aggressive. Skateboarding was like kissing Cherry. No, not even that—perhaps this was even better.

Joe bit down into Cherry’s collarbone and a strangled sound escaped from Cherry’s throat as he nibbled down the sharp edges of his neck. Oh yeah—this was _definitely_ better than skateboarding.

The rest of the night was pretty much a blur. Between their making out in the street turned into something much more private, they somehow managed to make it to their room in the hotel.

They fell into the bed in a tangle of limbs and kisses, and the rest was just well, as it is said it is in Paris, magical.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! i really hope you liked it, and consider leaving kudos and comments if you did! <3 
> 
> also, how are you guys feeling about episode 9??? personally, i wrote this to cope lmaooo; fuck adam i hope the mf goes to jail. 
> 
> you can also find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/TODOR1K0) and [tumblr](https://sailor-muwun.tumblr.com) if you'd like to! <3


End file.
